Capt. Jamie Hough of Flat Spot Charters in Charleston has been making a regular pilgrimage up the ICW toward Capers and Price Inlets over the past three weeks – with good reason. He’s been on a killer redfish bite, anywhere between a dozen and 18 fish on a single falling tide.
“It’s been a good bite all month,” said Hough (843-364-1759). “Peter Brown and I have been running up here a lot. Usually, by this time of year, I’m fishing the Wando River for trout every day.”
But Hough has run into a very productive area and pattern. He’s been setting up on a falling tide, fishing around oyster rakes and oyster points, mostly using cut bait.
It hardly took him two hours to put better than a half-dozen redfish in the boat this past Thursday – with every fish in the 20- to 23-inch class.
“There are seven or eight shell points within 300 yards of each other, and we’ve been fishing them on a falling tide,” Hough said. “On this full moon we’ve had, they’ve been gorging themselves on fiddler crabs on high tide, up in the grass, but as soon as the tide turns, they’re falling back out.
“They’re just working up the edges of the marsh grass. You just wait for them to come by. Dead low tide has been the best, without a doubt.”
Hough’s go-to bait has been pieces of blue crab, with cut finger mullet a close second and live mullet third. He’s been fishing the cut bait on a split-shot rig and the live bait either on a split-shot rig or under a cork.
“The most important thing about fishing cut bait is to leave the rod in the rod holder, loosen the drag and let the fish take the bait,” he said. “With a circle hook, you don’t need to set the hook. You just lift the rod tip and wind all the slack in.”
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